Make Money

Airline passengers might not enjoy paying higher fares to be crammed into full airplanes with little more than a bag of peanuts for sustenance, but that cash seems to be helping the nation's carriers finally put the brakes on their multibillion-dollar, multiyear slide. In the past week and a half, eight airlines have reported that they finally made money in the second quarter after years of losses, earned more than last year or, in the cases of Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways - Baltimore's No. 1 and 2 carriers, respectively - had their best three months ever.

Just over a year ago, longtime blogger Jason Kottke announced that he was quitting his Web design job and planned to work full time on his Web site, kottke.org. For revenue, Kottke decided to try a bold experiment: Instead of adding advertisements to his very popular site, the Brooklyn resident decided to hold a three-week fund drive. "I'm asking the regular readers of kottke.org (that's you!) to become micropatrons of kottke.org by contributing a moderate sum of money to help enable me to edit/write/design/code the site for one year on a full-time basis," he wrote at the time.

Mention coupons to a regular grocery shopper and you're likely to get intense reaction. Some love coupons and will boast about the hundreds of dollars they save with them. Others sneer, saying their time is too valuable to be wasted on the meager savings. The key is to use coupons wisely and disregard the ones that aren't worth the effort. In round numbers, an American family of four annually spends $4,800 on grocery-store food, $800 on housekeeping supplies, $400 on personal-care products and $130 on nonprescription drugs, according to government figures on consumer expenditures.

Connie Johnson this holiday season is doing something she never thought possible - buying all her gifts from J.C. Penney Co. Inc. The Ellicott City nurse who considers herself fairly fashion-forward used to think the department store's selection of apparel was dowdy. Then one day while wandering through the store at The Mall in Columbia to get to another retailer, she noticed the clothes at J.C. Penney had become surprisingly trendy. "At one time their clothes looked very cheap, but now they're up to par with Hecht Co. and they have excellent prices, too," said Johnson, loaded with sweat shirts and several Pierre Cardin shirt-and-tie sets for her husband and brothers.

QITAIHE, China - The sign near the small coal mine where Liu Quanju's husband and son died makes clear in bold red characters that, at least in words, the government supports mine safety: "Managing methane is a great responsibility. Fulfill your duty at work and inspect conscientiously." Such signs urging safety in coal mines are as ubiquitous as the proclamations by political leaders on the subject. But in a state where propaganda often runs counter to reality, all the posters and proclamations serve merely to underscore just how unsafe China's coal mines are. Many mine operators and their government patrons are reaping financial windfalls from the nation's energy-hungry economic boom, by producing as much coal as possible as cheaply as possible - a credo that is not recorded on propaganda signs.

Chris Smith, full-time real estate investor, is on the hunt for deals, steering his Mercury Cougar along the quiet residential streets of Lochearn at 15 miles per hour so he can see any hints of vacancy or financial hardship: Tall grass. Overgrown or thick vines. Curled shingles. But in a year of searching, he's bought one bargain for himself - and passed more than 40 possibilities along to other investors. It's not cold feet. It's bird-dogging. In this hot housing market, there are uncounted but apparently growing numbers of people like Smith who ferret out potential buys for someone else.

Amazon.com Inc. is helping customers find something surprising this holiday season: its retail rivals. Nearly a decade after it wowed millions with online shopping, Amazon is betting that the big money on the Web lies in connecting buyers and sellers. So when Amazon shoppers search for computers, the results might include a link to Dell Inc.'s online shopping site. Browsing for Ralph Lauren duds could get you connected to fashion retailer Bluefly Inc. A digital camera sold by J&R Music and Computer World is sometimes displayed more prominently than the same one sold by Amazon.

Krispy Kreme makes doughnuts that people line up to buy, at least when a store opens in a new market. It was this that made Krispy Kreme's stock hotter than its products when it burst onto the investment scene a few years ago. But now reality is setting in. The important thing about Krispy Kreme is not that it reported a quarterly loss this week. Nor is the crucial issue an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the unwillingness of company auditors to sign off on its quarterly filings until the investigation is over.

It's often said that parents shouldn't take too much credit for a child who turns out great or assume too much blame for a child with problems. After all, many other factors entered into that complicated equation. The same can be said for the economy. Our nation has affirmed through a heated campaign and tight election the importance of the U.S. president, who has power over regulatory bodies, appoints the Federal Reserve chairman and presents tax proposals that Congress must decide upon.

NEW YORK -- Less than a block from Grand Central Station, a new stock market is being born. It doesn't employ hundreds of shouting traders, have a slick Madison Avenue advertising campaign or fancy offices. Instead, a tangle of gray computer and phone wires hangs from the ceiling, secondhand desks abut each other and employees in the sales group, help desk, operations and marketing departments are jammed into a small white room tucked away from the bustling crowd on East 42nd Street. "We do have a Renoir on the wall," quipped Alfred R. Berkeley III, chairman of Pipeline Trading Systems LLC, noting a cheap framed print of a painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir that hangs in a corner.